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Bryan Chaffin

Bryan Chaffin is the cofounder of The Mac Observer and currently serves as Afternoon Editor. He has contributed to MacAddict and MacFormat magazines, and co-authored the last two updates of iPad and iPad Pro for Dummies with Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus and Ed Baig. You can find out more about Bryan at his personal site, GeekTells, or find his Twitter link below.

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Apple Enables Lion Internet Recovery in Mid 2010 iMacs

Lion Recovery Apple’s sparse patch notes for the firmware update: About iMac EFI Firmware Update 1.8 This update enables Lion Recovery from an Internet connection on iMac (Mid 2010) models. For more information about Lion Recovery, please visit this website: http://www.apple.com/macosx/recovery/. As of this writing, the firmware update isn’t showing up on Apple’s Downloads site,…

Apple & Sam’s Club Discussing Expanded Retail Presence

At the heart of the report is the idea that Apple wants to expand its existing store-within-a-store program beyond the two major retailers Apple is already working with, Best Buy and Target. According to the site’s sources, Sam’s Club is merely one such retailer that Apple is talking to, but it’s the one with a…

Apple Moves to Block New Zealand “driPhone” Trademark

driPhone’s Self-Titled Case In filing its opposition to the trademark, Apple argued that, “the applicant’s trademark, or an essential element of it, is identical or similar to a trademark that is well-known in New Zealand [iPhone].” According to Stuff.co.nz, Apple has asked Mr. Crowther to change the name of his product to dryPhone in order…

Apple Clarifies iBooks Author EULA, Excludes Claim on Content

iBooks Author is Apple’s new ebook authoring software that was announced on January 19th. Free software, iBooks Author allows people to create books (with an initial focus on textbooks) for Apple’s new iBooks 2, which was announced at the same time. iBooks 2 is based on the ePub 3 format, but Apple used the classic…

Apple Stock Sets New High, Lengthens Lead as Most Valuable Co.

Apple and energy giant Exxon Mobil have been battling it out during much of the last year for the title of world’s most valuable company, but Apple retook the lead shortly after the company’s Q1 2012 financial results were announced on January 24th, as shown in the chart below. AAPL vs. XOM during the last…

Macworld|iWorld Drum Circle Brings the Tribe Together

It was 3:00 PM, meaning there was just one hour left of the show. People were still streaming in for their last chance to look at all the cool stuff and buy some last minute deals, and the vendors all had visions of not having to stand in their booths dancing in their eyes. Jeff…

Apple to Open Retail Store in Cool Springs, Tennessee

According to the report, the new store will be 13,000 square feet, making it one of the larger Apple Store retail locations. The report also said that it was the mall that decided not to renew its lease with Abercrombie & Fitch in order to bring Apple in. Unnamed sources said that Apple will officially…

The Woz: Android Has Some Advantages Over iPhone

Steve Wozniak Many headlines on the Internet—including The Daily Beast’s own—have spun the interview as one in which Mr. Wozniak said Android is better, but the reality is that he praised both platforms and said that each has advantages over the other. According to him, the iPhone is elegant and beautiful, simple and easy to…

I Have Seen the Future of UI, and It Is Gaze

Be that as it may, CES was a great time and we saw some really cool stuff, and one of the coolest isn’t available for any of Apple’s products or platforms—at least not yet. Tobii, a Swedish company, was demonstrating Gaze, eye tracking technology the company is working on positioning as a new paradigm for…

iTwin USB Device Securely Shares Files Over the Internet

iTwin Devices Being Paired iTwin derives its name from the fact that you need two iTwin devices for it to work. When paired with one another, the devices allow users to share files over the Internet using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256 bit encryption. Plug in one to a Mac or PC, assign it files…

iRig STOMP—A Stomp Box for Amplitube on iOS Devices

iRig STOMP, direct from the CES floorAmplitube is IK Multimedia’s amp and effects modelling solution. Originally introduced on the Mac, the company has also brought it to iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. With it, users can choose between different amps, speaker cabinets, and microphones for their virtual rig, and then add up to four effect…

Apple Taps Adobe Exec to Head iAd, Report

Todd Teresi Tapped for iAd Mr. Teresi came to Adobe from Yahoo! where he worked for ten years. While at the search company he held executive positions in charge of world wide sales (i.e. ad sales), as well as being in charge of the firm’s publishing network. At Apple, Mr. Teresi will report directly to…

Rupert Murdoch Calls Steve Jobs Biography “Unfair”

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch Mr. Murdoch is the chairman and CEO of News Corp, a media company with holdings all over the world. In the U.S., News Corp is best known for Fox News, the Fox network, and The Wall Street Journal, but the company is also prominent in newspapers and TV in Australia…

Siri Curses Out 12 Year Old After Prankster Meddling

The Sun reported that young Charlie Le Quesne approached an iPhone 4S on display at the Tesco in Coventry and asked Siri, “How many people are there in the world?” Siri’s alleged response: “Shut the f*** up, you ugly t***.” Now, we all know that Siri can be a bit cheeky sometimes, but such a…

Apple Posts iTunes Match Setup Guide, FAQ

Apple makes all of the music you purchase on iTunes available to all of your iTunes-enabled devices and computers for free through what Apple calls “iTunes in the Cloud.” iTunes Match is a paid service (US$24.99 per year) that matches this functionality for all of your music, no matter where you got it. The service…

Apple to Build “Prototype” Apple Store in Palo Alto

Apple’s Current Apple Store at 451 University in Palo Alto, CASource: Apple  “Our Palo Alto store was one of our first retail stores when we opened it nearly a decade ago and it’s been incredibly popular,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement. “We are planning a beautiful new store just a few steps away,…

Report Shows App Store for iPhone & iPad Each Outgross Android

Source: Distimo (Click the image to see a larger version) The information is part of Distimo’s Full Year 2011 report on all the major mobile app stores. According to that report, “nearly all of the app stores” more than doubled the total number of available apps over the course of 2011, and Windows Phone 7…

Phishing Scam Targets MobileMe Customers

Phishing scams are efforts to trick users into voluntarily giving up login information, passwords, or account numbers. They can many forms, but the most common tend to be emails the bad guys hope you will either reply to or emails that include links to pages set up to spoof legitimate businesses. In this case, the…

IDC Sees Apple’s Q4 Tablet Share to Dip Below 60%

“Amazon and Barnes & Noble are shaking up the media tablet market, and their success helps prove that there is an appetite for media tablets beyond Apple’s iPad,” Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices, said in a statement. Accordingly IDC believes “Android” will claim 40.3 percent of the tablet market this quarter, up from…

Saxo Bank “Outrageous Prediction:” AAPL Declines 50% in 2012

The point of the company’s “Outrageous Predictions” list is to identify events that are “unlikely to happen,” but that have more chance of happening than the markets are currently accounting for. The firm says that it believes investors should consider such events that have “under-recognized probabilities.” So what better headline grabber is there than the…

Amazon Selling 1 Million Kindles Per Week

The Kindle Fire was announced in September as a US$199 tablet based on a forked version of Android. The company built a custom interface with hooks into its digital music, movies and TV shows, and the title digital content, Kindle ebooks. The 7” device offers limited features compared to Apple’s iPad 2, but it’s been…

1980 Steve Jobs Speech Shows Early User Experience Focus

Frame from Steve Jobs Speech in 1980 The video was donated to the Computer History Museum by Regis McKenna, the public relations maestro who worked with Steve Jobs throughout his career in the areas of marketing and public relations. Most of the semi-prepared segment of the presentation talks a lot about general computer industry in…

Apple Board Member Andrea Jung Steps Down as Avon CEO

Andrea Jung Source: Avon Ms. Jung was once a shining star in the executive world. She took over the helm of Avon in 1999, and her company’s stock more than tripled during the first six years of her tenure. In recent years, the company’s stock has suffered, in part because the firm is facing bribery…

iPhone 4S Cases Made from 7” Vinyl Records

A Yellow Frame with a Black Record Back (Click the image for a larger version) Called Third Man 45 iPhone 4S Case, the cases consist of a frame and a backing plate, which is the part made from the record. That makes them interchangeable, and three packs of backs are available. In the promo video…